Word Structure & Morphological Analysis Flashcards
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Why is morphological awareness important for second language acquisition?
Answer: It allows learners to infer meanings of unfamiliar words by analyzing word structure
Morphological awareness enables language learners to decode unknown words by identifying familiar roots, prefixes, and suffixes, making vocabulary acquisition more efficient.
A learner notices that the Spanish suffix '-ción' often corresponds to the English suffix '-tion' (e.g., nación/nation). This demonstrates:
Answer: Cross-linguistic morphological transfer
Recognizing parallel morphological patterns across languages is cross-linguistic morphological transfer, a valuable skill that accelerates foreign language vocabulary learning.
A language learner encounters the unfamiliar word 'malfunction.' Using morphological analysis, the best conclusion is that it means:
Answer: An improper or failed operation
'Mal-' is a Latin prefix meaning 'bad' or 'wrong,' so 'malfunction' means a failure or improper operation.
What is the key difference between inflection and derivation in morphology?
Answer: Inflection changes grammatical forms without creating new words; derivation creates new words
Inflection changes a word's grammatical form (tense, number, case) without creating a new word, while derivation creates new words, often changing their grammatical category.
Which morphological feature would a language aptitude test most likely assess to measure a learner's ability to analyze new words?
Answer: Recognition of morpheme boundaries and their contributions to meaning
Language aptitude tests assess morphological awareness by testing whether learners can identify meaningful word parts and use them to infer the meaning of novel vocabulary.
Which of the following best illustrates 'productive morphology' in language use?
Answer: Applying '-er' to new verbs like 'googler' or 'tweeter' to create novel nouns
Productive morphology means actively applying morphological rules to create new, previously unlisted words; coining 'googler' demonstrates this generative process.
Which option correctly identifies ALL morphemes in 'internationalization'?
Answer: inter-, nation, -al, -ize, -ation (5 morphemes)
'Internationalization' breaks into five morphemes: 'inter-' (between), 'nation' (root), '-al' (adj. suffix), '-ize' (verb suffix), and '-ation' (noun suffix).